Diabetes is a disease which is increasing in the population and with this increase, the complications of this metabolic disorder is becoming more and more important. Diabetic cataract formation is the most reproductable complication of the disease and even though this complication is seldom seen nowadays, better understanding of the underlying abnormalities leading to its formation would help us in elucidating cataract formation in general and cataract formation in diabetics in particular. The main objective of this project is to help to understand better the early changes which take place in the metabolism and glucose transport of lenses of diabetic animals and to correlate these early changes with cataract formation. Even though the energy yielding metabolic pathways are well worked out in the lens of normal animals, the alterations in metabolism which take place in lenses of diabetic animals prior to any visible lenticular changes are still controversial. We plan to concentrate our attention on the "early phase" of metabolic alterations of diabetic lenses and relate the early alterations in metabolism with the formation of cataracts.